


His Dark Father

by angelholme



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-08
Updated: 2010-03-08
Packaged: 2017-10-07 19:44:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelholme/pseuds/angelholme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Palpatine's thoughts on the eve of his victory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Dark Father

"Soon" He thought "It would be time"

He rarely displayed strong emotions - the last time he could remember doing so was when Queen Amidala told him that she was returning to her home planet of Naboo to fight for its freedom. That, in itself, had been so surprising that he had actually let it show on his face. But now, as he thought back, it was obvious that she would. The former Queen, and now Senator, was not one to shy away from conflict when it was required, and he should have realised that she would not sit around and wait for Naboo to be free while she thought there was something she could do.

"But" He continued his thoughts "There hasn't been a great deal to surprise me since then"

The death of his apprentice on Naboo at the hands of Kenobi was not a surprise. In fact, it was a necessity. Maul had provided a diversion for the two Jedi, while Amidala set about liberating her planet. If the Jedi had been there as well, and had truly helped in the liberation, then the doubt he had managed to instil in his protege would never have existed. And, of course, the death of Qui-Gon Jinn was an added bonus, and one that had played a large part in recent history.

But now the Republic stood on the edge of an abyss, and from here it would take only one, tiny push to send it spiralling out of control, and deliver it in to his hands.

Grevious was being taken care of, the Senate was made up almost entirely faithful lapdogs, and those who dared to oppose him would be dealt with within a few days, and most of all his protege - the young man who considered him the nearest thing to a father - was about to become his new apprentice, his new partner in the darkness.

Of course, he sighed, he would have to get rid of the boy's wife. As he had found out, she was a good person, in every sense of the word. There was no possibility that she would want to stay married to a Dark Lord of The Sith, especially not one that would end up committing genocide within the week. And while he couldn't tell Anakin this, he knew that, on one level, Anakin already suspected it. But the most delicious and delightful part was that however much young Padme tried to rescue her husband from his destiny, it would only force Anakin to fight harder against her.

He thought back to his recent conversation with his future apprentice - and he realised that what he had told the boy - that he had never lied to him - was almost entirely true. There were only two things that he had kept hidden, and both of those were of the utmost importance.

The first was that he, the man who held the future of the Republic in his hand, was not all he seemed to be. And, once Anakin was on his side, he would explain why the secret had had to be kept. How could he tell The Hero Of The Jedi Order, the one man, besides himself, who symbolised all that was good and righteous in the galaxy, that his mentor and friend was one of those considered evil?

But the second - the second he would never tell Anakin. Because he truly feared that to do so would cause a rift between the two of them, and turn his future apprentice against him. And he was not sure who would win if that happened.

He let his mind wander back to the past, several hundred years before. In his mind's eye he watched himself sneak in to his master's room, creep over to the bed where the man he had learned everything from slept, and then he smiled as he raised his blood-red lightsabre high, and bring it slicing down so hard that it not only decapitated his master, but split the bed in two and left a large slash in the floor.

His mind came forward to the more recent past. To the night where, in the Senate, he had overheard Master Windu speak of a prophecy that one who would come to bring balance to the force. He had spent the next six months researching the prophecy, and realised that it was the sign he had been waiting for - the sign that would bring about the restoration of the Sith to their rightful place in the galaxy. Because for all the wisdom of Master Yoda, the insight of Master Windu and the collected knowledge on the Council, none of the Jedi saw what he saw - that The Force had been out of balance for nearly a thousand years. Since the massacre of the Sith Lords by the Jedi Order. Without anyone to oppose them, the Jedi had flooded the galaxy with their nauseating goodness and righteousness, and had all but obliterated the counterpoint that underpinned the idea of good - that is the idea of evil.

But even that had served its purpose - with no real opposition to fight them, the Jedi had grown complacent and weak. They talked of The Sith, but they talked of The Sith of old, and he knew that - when he revealed himself - they would not be ready, could not be ready. Because while they believed in The Sith, they spoke of it as a child speaks of ghosts and monsters under the bed - something that should only be feared by those who don't understand it.

Once he was sure of the prophecy, and that his interpretation of it was not flawed, he decided that it was time to bring it about. So he left Naboo in secret, and travelled to the out of the way planet he had decided to use for his purposes. There he used the knowledge he had gained from his late Master to force a local slave woman to conceive a child, and then he left, knowing he would never return. For he knew that prophecy would ensure the child would come to term, would become a Jedi, and would - in time - bring balance to the force by ensuring that once again there were an equal number of Jedi as there were Sith.

He didn't know how long it would take, but that didn't matter. He was a patient man, and would wait a lifetime for his goals to be achieved. He did not know in what manner the prophecy would be fulfilled, but again it would not matter, because all that mattered was it would be fulfilled. He did not even know if the child would be a boy or a girl, but either would suit his purpose.

All he knew that was the prophecy would come to pass, and that was all he needed to know.

xoxox

Palpatine turned as he heard the door. It was time. Time to bring his son in to the fold, and time to bring a new order to the galaxy.

"Anakin, welcome"

**Author's Note:**

> I am not George Lucas, and this is not done for profit. And surely I can't be the only one who thinks that Palpatine is the one who causes Anakin to be born?


End file.
